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SOLVED Asus 990FX Sabertooth R2 BSOD/reboot issues

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lichtenauer

Registered
Joined
Mar 9, 2013
Location
Portland, OR
Howdy all,

I'm pleading to the collective wisdom of this forum in the hopes that someone can help me resolve (what I suspect are) mobo issues with my new AMD build.

I've got a FX-8350 Vishera installed on an Asus 990FX Sabertooth R2 mobo, 16 GB GSKILL Sniper 1866 DDR3. Coolermaster 212 Plus CPU fan, Samsung 840 Pro SSD. I built the rig last night and installed Win7 Ultimate x64 + Asus drivers and updates. All seemed well until late this morning when it started intermittently re-booting and throwing BSODs. This can happen at boot, when the system is idle, under light CPU load (browsing the web), or heavy load (EVE). The random reboots also occur when I'm working in BIOS so I'm fairly sure it's not a Windows issue (sometimes BIOS hangs too, forcing hard restart).

Things I've done so far to troubleshoot:



  • Run memtest - RAM passed.



  • Swapped memory from DIMMs 1/3 to 0/2



  • Adjusted memory speed down to 1333 (mobo detected as 1600, not 1866)



  • Disabled ECC mode (was on by default)



  • Flashed BIOS to newest version from ASUS' site

None of these have worked and I'm still getting frequent reboots and BSODs. I'm at my wit's end - I'd really like to avoid an RMA.

I've built systems before but never messed with over-clocking CPU or memory. I know nothing about how to adjust timings/voltage, etc...

I've seen some forum posts here and elsewhere from others who had similar issues with this mobo/CPU combo but none yielded conclusive answers.

Can anyone on this forum assist me with advice as to next steps to resolve this? Thanks much in advance.
 
Sounds like a Vcore issue being too low or a weak power supply and can also be a heat issue.

We have no idea of your power supply nor your heat readings.

You can describe the power supply make and model and get the FREE version of HWMonitor from CPUID com and capture the pic of HWMoitor and upload to the forum showing what is called CPU Temp and and Voltages and still showing this make the HWMonitor window larger before capture so we can see the "PACKAGE" Temp, previously known as Core Temp in older versions of HW Monitor.
RGone...
 
I would definitely recheck the CPU cooler installation, RGone might be on to something with overheating being a problem.
 
CPU temp and PSU info

Thanks for responding so soon. My PSU is a Corsair TX 750W. Attached is the screenshot you requested. Please let me know if there is any additional information you require. Thanks.
 

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Issue resolved (I hope!)

Well, I think I found the root cause of my issue and now I feel quite dumb.

:facepalm:

While poking around in BIOS I happened to check the SATA configuration and noticed that my DVD RW was plugged into the first SATA port and my SSD boot drive was plugged into another port; after swapping drives to connect the SSD to the first SATA port my random reboots have stopped and my machine seems stable again. It's been running fine for the last hour, encoding video like a champ, downloading games from Steam and playing EVE. I'm going to attribute the earlier reboots and freezes while in BIOS to me monkeying with the RAM speed without knowing what I was doing.

So, problem solved I think. I'm going to let it run for a while longer just to be sure, then I'll mark this thread solved.

There's still the issue of the board defaulting RAM speed to 1333 (instead of manufacturer listed speed of 1866) but I'll try to figure that one out on my own and start a new thread here if I need help. As I said earlier, I've never overclocked before but eventually I'd like to try pushing this build as high as it will go.

Thanks again Rgone and Lvcoyote for your responses and help; much appreciated.
 
There are six brown sata ports on the motherboard, you probably want your main HDD hooked to SATA6G_1 and the DVD drive hooked to SATA6G-2. I looked at the maual for that board and there is a great illustration of where is sata port is, you may want to check that out.

As far as memory goes, it's common for motherboards to default the memory at 1333 MHz. In the BIOS area of your manual, again there is a nice explanation of the available memory frequency options. It looks like you can select up to 1600 MHz by simply changing the memory frequency option in BIOS. You also need to make sure the memory timings and voltage are set correctly according to manufactures specs. There is a section in BIOS to set the timings and voltage too. All these options are in the AI Tweaker section of BIOS. The manual also suggests the memory modules be installed in slots A2 and B2, which are the 2nd and 4th away from the CPU socket.
 
Hi lichtenaur I currently run a Sabretooth.
To expand a bit more on what lvcoyote is saying in your BIOS under advanced settings you'll see a header called tools. Under this is asus spd. When you open that it will list the manufacturer spd info for the different frequencies and voltages. The Dram timings are located under the AI tweaker tab
 
Up and running at 1866 speed

Thanks Johan,

Following your and Lvcoyote's advice, I went ahead and found the XMP1 timings indicated for 1866 frequency on my RAM. I set as many of them as I could per what the timing table indicated (had to leave some set to 'Auto') and then flipped the memory frequency in BIOS to 1866. My computer rebooted without any issues and now seems to be running just fine at 1866 (might run Memtest for an hour or so of before I call it good).

I'll probably let it run for a couple days with the up-clocked memory and standard CPU frequency (4.0 for the FX-8350). If everything remains stable then at some point I'll attempt overclocking the CPU.

Thanks again for your kind advice.
 
Still experiencing random reboots

Well, after setting the RAM up to 1866 and running stable all day yesterday I thought I was out of the woods with this build. I was wrong.

Last night before I went to bed, I noticed I'd been running the case fans ( 230mm x 2, 140mm x2) at close to full speed and were generating lots of noise. My case (Rosewill Thor v2) has an integrated fan controller on the front panel; 2 analog dials that can adjust the fan speed. I've got the 2 intake fans routed to one dial and the 2 exhaust fans connected to the other. I turned the fans down low for less noise and as I did the system rebooted. Gah!

I don't think this is a heat issue - my CPU temps haven't gone above 40 C since I turned it on and the reboot happened immediately when I turned the fans down. I'm wondering if this is a voltage issue (as RGone suggested it might be earlier in this thread). The case fans aren't integrated with the motherboard (other than the molex power connections) - they plug directly into the case's fan controller and therefore aren't being monitored by the mobo, so I wouldn't think it would be caused by the board shutting down automatically due to detecting a low fan speed - then again wtf do I know, I'm new at this.

CPU voltage has been kinda spikey, ranging between ~980 - 1.4. I don't know if that is normal behavior or not.

My big concern here is that, aside from bumping the RAM up to 1866 (which is within spec for this RAM) I haven't overclocked anything - running the CPU at stock frequency and still having this reboot issue. Every PSU calculator I've checked indicates my PSU (Corsair TX750) is more than adequate to handle the power load.

Does anyone have any ideas as to what the issue might be or what I might do next to troubleshoot?

Thanks in advance.
 
That's an odd sounding problem. Possibly a grounding issue. The fan knobs are located by the upper USB ports correct? Is it possible that you touched one of the ports with your fingers while turning the knobs ? Static discharge through the usb would do that.
Or possibly a bad ground on the power supply.
 
The fluctuation in your CPU voltage could just be the "green" stuff at work- the power-saving, heat-limiting technologies associated with the FX family of CPUs.

What is the make and wattage of your PSU?

The symptoms you describe could also reflect something starting to fail on the motherboard. I had very similar symptoms earlier this year with an Asus board (intermittent, random restarts) and it eventually manifested itself in a fried integrated circuit trace between the 24 pin power plug and the memory banks. I think the trace was beginning to break down months ago, causing the random restarts, and finally burned up.
 
Yikes...I'd much rather have this be a PSU issue than a fried mobo circuit.

Johan - Yes it's certainly possible I touched the front USB when I turned the fan dials; however, I was able to replicate this issue multiple times and probably I wouldn't have touched the front ports every time I dialed down the fans and caused a reboot.


Trents - My PSU is a Corsair TX 750. I recycled it from a previous build where it was rock solid for a couple years. Maybe it's starting to go bad - how can I tell? Mobo is brand new from Newegg.

Should I start considering a RMA at this point?

Thanks gents for your assistance.
 
Before you do that make sure the screws holding it in( PSU) are getting good (bare metal) contact with the case.
 
OK I will double check the PSU mountings tonight when I get home from work. Assuming the contact is good, what would you suggest I look at next?
 
Check for pinched wires and loose connections with the fans and the controller. Also seperate the power input to two different feeds from the PSU If it still persists I' bypass the controller all together and see if it'll run stable after that.
 
OK Johan, I will try what you suggest when I get home this evening and post the results back to this thread. Thanks again.
 
Well Johan, I tried your suggestions and I think you diagnosed the issue successfully.

I checked the PSU grounding - it was secured with good contact to the case. Next I checked all the PSU cable connections and made sure those were good. I put the fan controller power connector on a separate molex cable and booted up.

When I turned the fans down from max speed I got the same reboot. I checked Windows event viewer this time and saw this corresponded to the a critical power failure event (event code 41). I suppose I could have stopped the reboots by setting Windows to not reboot automatically on critical failure but that would probably be damaging to the system, so I didn't. Instead I followed your suggestion and decoupled the fans altogether from the case fan controller and attached them to the motherboard. I enabled CPUQ in BIOS and set all 4 fans to "Standard". Since I've done that I haven't seen a reboot.

Today I'm letting it crank on the P95 blended test to make sure it's stable and the temps stay in a reasonable range under load. So far, so good.

Bummer about the case fan controller causing these issues - I"ll knock a couple eggs off the review, which is unfortunate because in all other respects the Thor v2 is a great case.

Anyways, thanks again, Sir, for your insight and help.
 
I would contact Rosewill about the issue. They may have a solution for the problem or even send you a new controller unit. Usually not worth it to send the case back.
Glad you're up and running lichtenauer:thup:
I know those kinds of issues can be quite frustrating at times. :bang head
 
This can happen at boot, when the system is idle, under light CPU load (browsing the web), or heavy load (EVE). The random reboots also occur when I'm working in BIOS so I'm fairly sure it's not a Windows issue (sometimes BIOS hangs too, forcing hard restart).

All sound like symptoms of having too high of DRAM clock.
 
I think Johan45 hit the nail on the head diagnosing this as an issue with the case's fan controller. Ever since I decoupled the fans from the case controller and attached them to the mobo my rig has been running just fine with no reboots. Marking this one as resolved. Thanks again everyone.
 
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